


Grafting

by goosebxrry



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: but im still proud of it, dont ship real people tho, i think the plots pretty good actually, its not super shippy but sure, scarian - Freeform, so im posting it here too, so yeah. fanfic., this was actually the first hermitcraft fanfic i wrote
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24766432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goosebxrry/pseuds/goosebxrry
Summary: Grian’s not doing so well, but thankfully he stumbles upon Scar before something truely terrible happens. When Scar and Xisuma investigate, they discover his injuries are a little bit more severe than a few mobs’ doing...
Relationships: Charles | Grian/GoodTimesWithScar
Comments: 12
Kudos: 213





	Grafting

**Author's Note:**

> i actually grafted a lemon and an orange tree for my fourth grade science project (and got an A+ haha) so i kinda thought of this and. BOOM. anyways enjoy y’all, its the first hermitcraft fanfic i ever did so it might be a little  
> awkward but either way.

Grian leaned against a tree, his wings fluttering weakly as he caught his breath again. Who would’ve thought that he could be so easily overpowered by a troop of skeletons and zombies? He really needed to start lighting up the hollow inner workings of his builds.

In the meantime, he just needed to rest for a moment. His hearts were slowly and steadily rising again, although he wished he had some golden carrots to speed it up a little. Anything would have been nice, actually; he’d just finished his last few bites of beef jerky. The moon was high overhead and almost threatening with its silvery luminance.

It’d been late in the evening, hours into his work, and diamond armour was heavy. Like a fool, Grian had made the mistake of taking his protection off to reduce to weight he was carrying. Of course, when the floods of mobs began to spawn and crawl out of some hole in his wall, he didn’t have time to run past them to the pile of diamond gear.

So here he was, out in the open, at night, with low health and no armour in the middle of the jungle. Just like day one.

How nostalgic, he thought sarcastically to himself. 

“Where’s Bdubbs when you need him?” He muttered quietly, watching a nasty-looking spider bite close as his health steadily got closer and closer to being full again. It felt like it was going slower than usual.

Without warning, a twinge of pain seared through his lower back and spread like fire. He let out a scream, spinning around to see a skeleton readying a second arrow in it’s bow. Grian made quick work of cutting him down to just a pile of bones, but the pain didn’t disappear. No, the damage was done. 

He was about to try and somehow to remove it, despite it being in a blind spot, when a low moan next to him made him spin again. A drowned zombie was slowly crawling from the water, it’s decaying flesh and watery noises giving him shudders. He didn’t want those rotten jaws clamping down on his arm tonight.

He really didn’t want to fight right now either, with an arrow wedged into his lower back and without any more steak, so he just backed away. He didn’t know where he was, but upon close inspection what looked like a light in the dense jungle was just about visible. Grian made his way towards that. If it wasn’t a settlement of some sort, he was done for.

▽

Grian speedwalked through the jungle, mobs seeming to appear out of nowhere every few seconds. Luckily enough for him, he quickly got his bearings and he began to recognize the outskirts of Scar’s village. He was near his starter home, so that was good. Maybe he’d left some of his old iron gear behind.

He started climbing over the outer wall, nearly falling off as he cried out in pain as it felt like something penetrated his skin. He folded his wings a little differently to shield himself as he crawled over and landed roughly on the grass on the other side. Scar had lit-up and spawn-proofed the area. At least he was safe.

As though the universe was making fun of him, an arrow suddenly wedged itself into his shoulder. He let out a screech of pain, searching for the attacker.

But he didn’t see any skeletons or other mobs. Instead he saw Scar and took a couple desperate steps towards him, bathing his face in the light from a nearby lamppost. He hadn’t put two and two together, but luckily Scar wasn’t out for his blood.

“Hey, get— Grian?” Scar’s voice changed from defensive to surprised, then quickly to horrified. “Oh my god, Grian! I’m so sorry! I thought you were a zombie, I couldn’t see you, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” He ran forward, reaching out to steady his friend.

“I’m okay,” Grian slurred. He was feeling worse. “I ran out of food and got attacked by mobs, could I be the jungle bandit for a moment? I just need to get home.”

“Of course you can,” Scar replied without hesitation. “But are you sure you can make it home?” Scar added, this time hesitantly, looking his friend up and down.

Grian’s sweater was ripped in multiple places and blood seeped into the material here and there, turning it a dark scarlet as opposed to the cherry red of the rest of it. His blue eyes were half-closed and his speech was connected; he looked exhausted. Even his silvery-lavender wings, which were Grian’s pride and joy, were unceremoniously being dragged across the ground when he walked.

“I’ll be okay,“ Grian said, his eyes flickering with doubt. Scar lead him to the hollow shell of Larry the Snail, sitting him down on the table and pushing some rabbit stew and a regeneration potion into his hands. Scar had prepared the stew earlier for his own dinner, intended for when he finished up with yard work later on. He could always make more. Grian evidently needed it more than he did.

Any moment now, Grian should pop back to life, his hearts restoring themselves as he downed the potion. Scar was confident with his brewery skills. What kind of wizard would he be if he couldn’t whip up a simple regeneration potion?

Needless to say, he panicked quite a bit when Grian’s subtly shaking hands dropped the bowl to the floor, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed backwards to slam into the wooden floor with a groan.

“Grian!” Scar hopped over the table, crouching down next to his friend. This didn’t make sense, he should’ve been getting better and fine at this point.

Unless... No. Surely that wasn’t already damaged this early into the season. Grian had even managed to make it four fifths of the way through the previous season without his tree being damaged at all.

Grian coughed, blood dripping down his chin, clutching at Scar’s robes as he tried to sit up with a pained whime. Scar was too lost in thought to stop him.

Each hermit had a sapling that slowly grew as the season went on, this being their ‘Tree of Life.’ Admittedly, the beginning of the season was harsh; It wasn’t an task protecting a sapling without a single block to your name. As the season progressed the hermits’ trees grew stronger and the risk of permadeath went down, except for when they were in the end.

But they weren’t in the end, and this was incredibly abnormal. Scar found Grian’s wrist, trying to check how strong his pulse was. He barely felt it. A rush of fear pulsated through his veins.

“Grian, has anything touched your tree recently?”

▽

It was rather sudden. Grian had been dizzy earlier that day, just before the mobs— sudden and short-lived bursts, but nothing too bad. Occasionally a sharp pain would make him freeze and suppress a scream. He blamed it on sleep deprivation and hidden mobs. When he had been fighting those monsters in his base, something had felt weird; it was like he was under the influence of a weakness potion.

When he thought about it after the whole ordeal, even feeling the need to take off his armour was strange. It wasn’t like the armour was that heavy. He’d never felt that kind of need to take it off before.

But when Scar asked that question while he struggled to get the oxygen his lungs seemed to scream for, everything made sense. It was like he had been under some strange fog, and those words let him see the full picture in clear weather. And he was terrified.

“I- I...” Grian trailed off, trying to think clearly. His tree was in between his and Mumbo’s bases in the little clearing he’d made for their railway network. It seemed like a safe space, so it didn’t make sense. Nobody but Mumbo really knew about the area.

Then again, Mumbo hadn’t been in his hobbit hole for quite a while.

“Where’s your tree, Grian?” Scar asked softly, his thoughts swirling. He needed to go and check, that had to be the answer. He forced his voice to be calm as he spoke.

“It’s by Mumbo’s base,” Grian’s words were slurring and glitching to the point where they were barely even understandable. “The railway,” He coughed out. His voice was failing on him. Scar heaved Grian up to his own bed, dropping him on top of the covers and speeding to his base.

〈GoodTimeWithScar〉Hey Xisuma, can you come to Grian’s base please?

〈GoodTimeWithScar〉It’s urgent.

〈Xisuma〉On my way.

Scar shoved his communicator into his pocket again, nearly slamming into the landscape as he landed. He flung open the door to Grian’s starter base. It was small, lined with chests and spruce wood. It didn’t take long for him to find the railway system he’d mentioned.

Forcing himself to wait for Xisuma to arrive was torture, but he wasn’t going to risk not being there. Scar didn’t even risk checking quickly to see if it was the tree. It had to be.

Finally, the telltale sound of rockets and elytra folding was heard from outside, and Xisuma stepped inside. Before he could even ask, Scar began dumping words onto him in a rush of adrenaline.

“Grian came to my village and he was weak and had been fighting mobs and something happened and he’s barely alive, and nothing’s working to heal him!” Scar stammered, Xisuma’s eyes widening in surprise under his helmet as a sob ripped its way out of Scar’s throat. “It has to be his tree, you need to fix it, please, he said it was over here and you’re the—“

“I’ll do what I can, let’s go see it.” Xisuma cut him off, his own voice faltering slightly as he spoke. He’d only done this twice before, and both times were close calls. Those were in the later half of the season.

Grian had only joined the previous season, and if he were to die not even halfway through the next one Xisuma knew he’d never forgive himself. Despite him being the newest hermit, he left a good mark on everybody he met.

So the pair of them grabbed minecarts, jumping in and being shot down the well-lit and intricate tunnel. Grian always took his time on his builds, making sure everything looked perfect.

Scar got out first, not even waiting for the minecart to stop. He took half a heart of damage as he slammed into the wall, his communicator buzzing softly to alarm him. He ignored it, running into a small open space.

It was a tiny little area, filled with terraformed greenery and grass, with a second hobbit hole for them to come out of. Two trees filled the area.

On their right, an oak tree. It looked to be at least three years old, not fully grown but definitely not a sapling. It looked very much alive.

On their left... Grian’s little softly glowing jungle sapling of life. It was slashed here and there on its tiny trunk, the gashes looking like those of a sword. Its leaves were wilted and the branches drooping. A small pile of grey and brown leaves decorated the barely covered roots.

In conclusion; it looked horrible. Grian’s state made sense now.

Xisuma took a cautious step forward, his mind spinning. Someone had done this. Someone who he’d allowed to join the server. This wasn’t a mob’s fault. This was his fault.

But now was not the time. He kneeled down next to it, summoning his admin powers and trying to think of how he could save the tree as quickly as possible.

“Scar, come’re and hold the branches up, like this.” Xisuma instructed, taking a deep breath as he prepared himself.

▽

Grian tossed and turned, his head and body absolutely aching. He felt sick to his stomach, his vision dancing and coming and out of focus while he stared into blank space.

This was it. He was dying, he had to be. He was already imagining what it would be like, if it was anything at all. Would he know anyone where he was going? Was he going anywhere at all? Would it all just be done? ...Just like that?

At that thought, Grian squeezed his eyes shut. He wasn’t going to think about that. He wasn’t going to think about his own inevitable death right now, that wasn’t going to be his final thought.

Grian tried to focus on something else, anything else, but the ever-growing and searing pain that seemed to radiate from his very core grew impossibly stronger and everything went black in the blink of an eye.

▽

The leaves on Grian’s sapling were falling off and they were falling fast when Xisuma finally came up with a proper temporary solution. Every other tree he’d healed had not only been in a much earlier stage of death, but also much older and sturdier.

So he just froze a small bubble of time around Grian’s for now. That was his specialty, after all. Time-related magic.

Scar pulled his hands from the strange sensation with a strange look at Xisuma as he tried to figure out what had been done. It just looked like a warped orb, warbling slightly. A single leaf was stopped mid-air.

“He’ll be unconscious until we unfreeze it, but I need a real solution before I risk it.” Xisuma said quietly. “It’s just keeping him stable for now. I’m really sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize.” Scar interrupted, grabbing his arm with a surprising amount of ferocity in his voice. “You saved his life, even if he’s sleeping for now.”

Xisuma sighed, his eyes downcast. Scar’s face looked genuine through the yellow-tinted visor of his bee-themed helmet for the season, but Xisuma still felt bad. Someone here had done this, and he was the one who let them in each season.

Scar sighed, aware that his point only got halfway across and into Xisuma’s head. He pulled X into a rather sorrowful hug.

“I’m serious. Thank you.”

▽

The pair of them left, headed back to Scar’s base. They climbed into Larry the Snail one after the other to check on Grian. Both men stepped briskly into Scar’s bedroom.

When they arrived, Grian was horizontally asleep on Scar’s sheets, curled up tightly. He looked like he might’ve been in pain before Xisuma froze the tree in time, curling in on himself. Now he just looked like he was sleeping. His communicator, when they checked, was saying he was afk.

Scar checked for his pulse, thankful to feel a slow and weak but nevertheless steady beat. 

“I can take him back to my base to watch, if you‘d like.” Xisuma offered after a moment. Scar hesitated to answer.

“I... no, it’s okay. I’ll watch him.” Scar replied, smiling softly. Xisuma nodded and said a quick goodbye, knowing he had lots of work to do.

“Tell me if anything changes,” Xisuma added nervously as he stepped down the ladder. Scar nodded, and Xisuma left to fly back to his base.

▽

Four days later, Xisuma still had yet to sleep. Phantoms screeched outside his windows, but he’d learned to stop paying attention to that a long time ago. Although the pressing issue of who had done it was still fresh in his mind, he needed to focus on getting Grian back first.

The news had spread fast, as usual, and the reaction was as expected. A few people came by to offer their help, but each were politely declined. Xisuma didn’t usually work well with others on this kind of thing, he found. It messed with his head.

“Shishwammy?” Keralis flew through the yellow and black checkered entrance, opening and closing the trapdoor to get to the almost pitch-black room Xisuma was sitting in.

The admin was staring at the screens he had spread out, ideas and notes scattered across them in Standard Galactic. He always wrote in his first language when it was for his own private notes, and even though it was an open secret, it still surprised Keralis ever so slightly to see the somewhat sacred language being used so casually.

Xisuma spun his chair around, squinting slightly.

“Oh, Keralis. hello.” Xisuma greeted him with a tired smile and suppressed yawn, trying to hide his shaking hands by stuffing them into his pockets. His armour was hanging on an armour stand on the wall, his helmet on the desk in front of him. Keralis didn’t seem to buy it at all.

“When was the last time you slept?” Keralis asked, his voice taking on a harsher yet simultaneously softer tone when he saw Xisuma’s face. 

“Well.” Xisuma sucked in a breath, wincing at the stinging sensation in his lungs. He’d forgotten how painful it could get when he took off his helmet. Of course, keeping the heavy thing on for long periods of time when he already had a migraine wasn’t much better. “Two- wait, no, it was three-“ Xisuma paused. “...What day is it again?”

Keralis sighed, pushing a semi-transparent screen to the side as he sat down on X’s desk

“I know you’re working hard, but you need to sleep. I nearly got killed by those phantoms outside.” Keralis said. Xisuma had the decency to look guilty, shifting in his seat.

“I— yeah, but I need to finish this up, I don’t—“ Xisuma was quieted by Keralis placing a kiss on his temple and a hand on his cheek, and he shut his eyes temporarily, reaching up to grab Keralis’s arm as he leaned into the touch.

Keralis chuckled softly, leaning down to press their foreheads together. Xisuma smiled ever so slightly, his tired lavender eyes opening to meet Keralis’s.

“Now for God’s sake, go to sleep, will you?”

▽

Scar had gotten used to the extra company in his shell. Grian didn’t do much, of course, but every now and then he would stir ever so slightly and Scar would make sure he didn’t wake up.

According to Xisuma, if Grian were to wake up, he would probably either unfreeze the sapling or be awake because it was unfrozen. And that, of course, would mean he was dying again.

Scar was mainly doing his normal routine (building and resource gathering and terraforming, all that jazz,) but Grian always seemed to be at the back of his mind. Whether it was purposeful or not he didn’t know.

His communicator buzzed softly as the sun rose overhead, and Scar stopped his work almost instantly to check. His heart jumped a little as he saw who it was from.

〈Xisuma〉Hey Scar, can I stop by for a minute?

He replied as quickly as he could with shaking fingers (which wasn’t very fast). Surely he’d found a solution.

〈GoodTimesWithScar〉Of course! Whenever you can!

Scar put his things back into his shulker box, gathering it all up to fly back to his base and wait for Xisuma to arrive. It only took a few minutes.

“I think I found an answer.” Xisuma said immediately. “Keralis made me sleep and I had a dream, and I think it’s going to work. It’s a little risky, but it might.”

Scar sat down on a chest, waiting for Xisuma’s idea. He looked a little better. Scar had visited him once and he’d looked horrible, exhausted and burnt out. Scar was happy he’d been there to remind X to eat.

“Have you heard of grafting before?” Xisuma asked.

“I think so,” Scar replied. He knew it had to do with trees, but he wasn’t very informed on the science side of it all.

“It’s when you merge branches of similar plants together in a specific way and they grow into each other to create a bit of a hybrid, if you will.” Xisuma explained. “Grian’s tree is too small and weak for me to heal it on its own, so if I can graft another tree of life of a similar age and type to it, it might give it the little bit of strength that it needs.” Xisuma explained.

“Oh! So whose tree are we using?” Scar asked.

“That’s why I came directly to you, actually.” Xisuma said, worry creeping into his accented voice. “I might live in the jungle, but my tree of life is an oak tree. I think it’s best if we use a jungle tree, and you and Mumbo not  
only are both close to Grian, but also both have jungle saplings as your trees of life.” He continued, subtly hinting at what he wanted.

“You want to use my tree?” Scar asked a moment later, a little surprised but not upset. He was, if anything, a little bit honored. 

“If you’re comfortable with it.” Xisuma replied nervously. “I can always ask Mumbo, or even Stress, if you don’t want to.”

Scar shook his head. He didn’t mind, he just wanted Grian to be awake and well again. They’d spoken nearly every day, and if he was being honest, he missed his mischievous neighbour.

“I’m all good with it.” Scar assured him. “I’ll do it now, even, if you’re prepared.

In all honesty, Scar was less than prepared. Going off of what he’d heard so far? He was downright petrified. But better to get it over with before he changed his mind. Grian needs this, he reminded himself.

Xisuma got up, opening Scar’s ender chest to access his own goods.

“Sure. I only need some shears, it should be easy enough.”

Scar trusted Xisuma, of course, but the idea of what was about to take place gave him shudders. The notion of not only letting someone chop up his tree, but being okay with it, went against every bone in his body.

Just to make himself feel a little better, Scar brought along a regeneration potion with him. It wouldn’t do anything, but the strength it might give him would at least calm his nerves a little.

Scar lead Xisuma to his tree, which he’d carefully hidden in a perfectly spawn-proofed hollow interior of a synthetic tree. It could grow there until it was a little bigger. Or that was Scar’s plan, anyway.

Xisuma kneeled down next to the sapling, carefully running his fingers over a small green twig. Scar shivered a little, his stomach lurching as Xisuma pulled the pair of shears from his pocket.

“You might want to sit down,” Xisuma suggested. “You’re health’s at full, right?”

Scar nodded, leaning against the wood and clenching his fists. Xisuma was sure taking his time, but could he blame him? This had to be stressful for the admin.

Suddenly Scar felt what could only be described as the pain you would feel when impaled with burning nettle, his entire core absolutely seething and searing. He screamed. How in the world has Grian not immediately known something was terribly wrong?

“Scar!” Xisuma stopped, tearing off his helmet and standing up to steady his friend. Scar squirmed under his grip, scrunching up his nose. “Scar, can you hear me?”

The wizard cracked his eyes open, trying to steady his breathing as Xisuma showered him in panicked questions, trying to make sure he was still conscious and reactive.

“I’m... I’m fine. I just didn’t expect it to be that bad, that’s all. Mostly surprise.” Scar laughed hollowly, the lie sliding right off his tongue.

Xisuma held one small branch in his hand, glancing back at the still healthy-looking, if not thriving, sapling.

“We can stop now, if you need. I can try it with someone—“

“No,” Scar’s voice seemed to have recovered and was a little bit more steady, more determined. “If you initially planned on taking more, take more. I’ll be fine, Grian obviously isn’t. I can take it.”

Xisuma hesitated, glancing at the trembling Vex then back to the tree.

“...Tell me if I need to stop, I only was planning on two more.” Xisuma said quietly. “Your sapling’s larger, so it shouldn’t hurt it too badly nor damage it permanently.”

Scar nodded, gripping at the wall again. He waited for the next fateful moment when Xisuma harvested a branch.

Snip! Scar let out another scream, the sound tearing itself from his throat involuntarily. Xisuma seemed to decide that working quickly was better, so the next sharp pain came only seconds later, tearing yet another guttural shriek from Scar.

Xisuma gathered the branches, but he made Scar his priority. The man was shaking so violently that it had to have been tiring him out. He needed to rest, he definitely wasn’t fit for flying over to Grian’s starter base.

“Scar. Scar, talk to me. Are you okay?” Xisuma cautiously put the branches down, resting both his hands on Scar’s shoulders to try and ground him. His eyes were open wide, but unfortunately it didn’t seem like there was any kind of awareness behind them.

Xisuma cursed under his breath, collecting the branches and carefully stuffing them into the space between his chest and his armour as he picked Scar up bridal-style, returning him to his house.

Once he’d placed Scar on his bed next to Grian, his consciousness was slowly returning. He’d been clutching at X’s armour most of the way back, so in rhe very least he hadn’t been entirely out.

“Did... did it work?” His voice was nothing but a raspy whisper as Xisuma placed him down. Xisuma chuckled quietly.

“Yes, it worked.” He replied. Scar’s face melted with relief. “I’m going to go graft the trees together, you stay here with Grian, alright? Try not to stand up, you’re still recovering.”

Scar nodded, pulling a potion from his pocket to try it out, just in case it helped. It smelled bitter, but tasted as sweet as strawberries. Regeneration.

A common misconception between non-adventurers was that netherwart always tasted like mushrooms. This was only true for some netherwart, specifically wild netherwart. The domesticated kind you found in fortresses tasted more like rhubarb.

Xisuma flew out to Grian’s base, reaching the minecart track and flying down the hallway. He had the string, he had the branches, and he had his shears. All he needed to do was cut out indented ‘V’s to match with the pointed edges of Scar’s tree and connect them up. The rest was something he could  
speed up with magic.

Xisuma arrived, setting his supplies down beside him and taking a deep breath into the air of his helmet before positioning his hands around the orb.

And the time barrier shattered.

▽

Back in Scar’s base, Grian woke up with a jolt. Confused as he was, a sharp  
pain cut through him very suddenly and stopped his thoughts as he let out a pained cry.

“Grian?” Scar’s voice carried over the small space, and Grian turned slowly. Scar grabbed his arms gently. “Xisuma’s fixing your tree, just hold tight for now, okay?”

Grian forced a nod, whimpering quietly in pain once more a few seconds later. It was like he was being... carved? It wasn’t exactly explainable.

Either way, by god, it stung. He vaguely felt scar’s hand moving down to clasp his, but he couldn’t really tell.

Grian was quickly loosing power again, the multiple day coma only doing so much for him. He fell back into his old habit of sweats and feverish mumbling within about a minute.

Three minutes passed, and Grian was getting worse again, barely moving, before he suddenly stirred. Xisuma had finally finished the stressful job and managed to use a little magic to keep it from continuing down the unpromising spiral.

Grian opened his eyes and suddenly leapt up, gasping for air. Scar waited before celebrating. He didn’t want to get his hopes up. But when Grian didn’t collapse again with a sob, Scar smiled weakly and pulled him into a tight hug. Both their chests were shaking with silent sobs as his friend finally returned from the dead. Grian’s arms moved to wrap themselves around Scar, returning the hug with the little bit of strength he’d regained.

“It’s good to have you back.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! ik i kind of set this up for a p2 but i honestly cant see myself continuing this, so yeah. hope u enjoyed!


End file.
